Beautiful DIY Terrarium Made Easy

A beautiful terrarium evokes our memories of a lost paradise: lush jungles, moist tropical air, and rain forest by the ocean.

The secret is,  you don’t need special terrarium supplies or kits to create a little living paradise in a glass jar. A trip to a yard sale and a walk in the woods will give you all the treasures needed to make your own magical terrarium.

In order to make a terrarium that looks natural and stays healthy with minimal care, let’s look at a few basic yet important considerations first-

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There are two types of terrariums: open and closed, which will determine the choices of your terrarium plants.

Closed terrariums should be kept mostly in the shade. Moss, ferns, and any small plants found in the shaded forest floor will work great. Because of little moisture loss, the closed terrarium can stay alive and healthy for months with almost no maintenance. I made my closed terrarium ( the one in the photo above), and never had to open the jar in 4 months!

Open terrariums can be kept in the sun or shade. They are more like glass planters than a traditional “terrarium”. In addition to all the plants used in closed terrariums, you can plant orchid, any small indoor plants, etc. Even succulents can be used depending on the sun and shade requirements.

Materials and tools:

• large glass jars or vases: often yards sales or thrift stores will have vases or (affiliate link) glass cookie jars with lids like these.
• treasures found on a nature walk, such as moss, ferns, pebbles, seashells, branches, and some soil

Related Article: If you love indoor gardens, another easy way to grow beautiful indoor plants is to use just glass bottles and water.

Tutorial on how to grow beautiful indoor plants in glass bottles and water.

Let’s make a closed terrarium first using a large cookie jar.

Step 1: add some moist soil to the bottom of the jar.

Then a few rocks. If you could find one with some moss growing on it, you are lucky! 🙂

Step 2: add some plants, such as tiny ferns and moss.

Step 3: add some vertical elements, such as twigs and barks.

I found some with moss on them, so pretty!

Step 4: move things around until everything looks balanced.

It’s like creating a painting, or a bouquet. Step back and look at everything, shift things around until you are happy with how your terrarium looks!

Give everything a gentle mist, close the jar, and enjoy your little piece of tropical jungle paradise.

The open terrarium was made following the same steps.

I added some Sedum plants and a few seashells for different colors and textures.

The open terrarium needs to be misted once every couple of days.

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Happy creating! See you next week!